Ryder Cup Rumpus

One good rule for young professional golfers is never to make disparaging remarks about opponents. Another is not to make disparaging remarks about anyone in the presence of reporters. Last week several young golfers returning from last month's Ryder Cup matches in England (TIME, July 12) disregarded both rules. Loudest in their disparagement of both the Ryder Cup matches which Great Britain lost and the British Open Championship at Carnoustie which England's Henry Cotton won, were brash young

Ralph Guldahl, U. S. Open champion, Ed Dudley, and Tony Manero, U. S. Open champion in 1936. Their statements:

Manero: "In my match, with Henry Cotton, I begged the gallery to give me room . . . they crowded me so closely and talked so much I couldn't hit the ball. . . ."

Dudley: "There was a different feeling toward us. ... Not sporty good fellowship. . . . The referee attached to me stood so close to me he annoyed me. . . . It was patent the British wanted to win and win very badly. . . ."

Guldahl: "They cheered us plenty, whenever we made a mistake. ... As for the Carnoustie layout, it is not a fair one at all. ... I don't care if I never visit that country again. . . ."

The U. S. players also charged that British spectators tried to improve lies for British players.

In England, where the disgruntled statements of the U. S. Rydermen were reported even more sensationally than in the U. S., they were indignantly denied by the British professionals. Said Ryder Cup Captain Charles Whitcombe: "They were treated like our own fellows ... no hostility was shown them. It never is in this country. . . ."

U. S. Captain Walter Hagen, who had remained abroad for exhibition matches, tried to smooth over the rudeness of his less seasoned confreres by saying: "Some of the boys take their golf too seriously. . . . Ralph Guldahl says the only cheers the Americans got were when they missed shots. If that's so, they got plenty of cheers, for they played some bad golf. . . . The boys were doubtless tired when Guldahl made his statement, but take no notice of it. . . ."

Unreported on U. S. sport pages last week was the way in which the dispute had been allowed to start. Well aware that a group of high-spirited young celebrities returning from abroad might talk unwisely to reporters, the Professional Golfers Association dispatched two representatives to round up the players before they saw the Press. The P. G. A. representatives missed the cutter which took reporters down the bay to meet the boat. Trying frantically to close the incident, the P. G. A. last week talked about sending a publicity man with the next U. S. Ryder Cup team, if there is one.

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